CHAPTER XVI.
ONLY ONE LOVE.
"Her tremulous smiles; her glances' sweet recall
Of love.
*****
What sweeter than these things, except the thing
In lacking which all these would lose their sweet—
The confident heart's still fervor."
It was the day before Christmas, and the mills had been dismissed and closed at noon; but Ben Holden and Jonas Shuttleworth still lingered in the office, going over some papers that the elder man wished to have in complete order before the beginning of the year. Ben was an industrious, strict business man, but Shuttleworth's energy and precision almost wearied him.
"Dost ta niver get tired?" he asked, looking with a kind of wonder at the bright eyes and restless hands of his companion.
"I'm niver tired as long as I'm busy, Ben. After I gave up business, ten years ago, I used to be weary to death varry often; but since I
